King's Head Tavern

King's Head Tavern

On the east side of Chancery Lane, with a passage south to Fleet Street (Rocque, 1746).

Site has been rebuilt.

370. THE KINGS HEAD TAVERN. The bust of Henry the Eighth.
       —R. AT CHANCERY LANE END. In the field, T.A.K.

In the reign of Charles II., the Earl of Shaftesbury was president of the Green Ribbon Club, who held their meetings here, and were supposed to be the principal promoters of the "Pope-burning tumults." Roger North says, "their seat was in a sort of carfour, at Chancery Lane End."—The two tokens here described differ materially from each other, and seem to shew that the tavern had changed landlords.

 

737. AT THE KINGS HEAD. The bust of Henry VIII.
—R. IN FLEET STREETE. Letters detrited.

The bust on this token resembles that on several others; and, though rudely executed, conveys no bad idea of the portraiture of the English Herod. A friend observes, that for two centuries "the King's Head" meant Henry the Eighth, and the sign of "the Queen's Head" Queen Elizabeth.

288 THE KINGS HEAD TAVERN—King Henry the Eighth.
Rev. AT CHANCERY LANE END — T.A.K., in the field.

The imprint on the title to Forde's Ladies Triall, 1639, 4to, has "Printed for Henry Shephard, in Chancery lane, at the signe of the Bible, between Sarjant's Inne and Fleet street, near the King's-head taverne."

A gentleman having drank very hard at the King's-head tavern, reeling up Chancery lane, happened to reel within the rails of the pump, where keeping his motion round so long, he tired, and, leaning on the rails, asked from within, of a passer by, where he was; "Over against the Chancery," was the reply; "I thought so," said he, "and the reason, I think, I shall never get out of this place."—Cambridge Jests. The Chancery is now the Rolls Court.

Hogarth, in his print of "Burning the Rumps" at Chancery lane end, one of the large series of his illustrations to Butler's Hudibra, published in 1726, has included a view of the King's-head tavern.

See also King's-head tavern, Fleet Street, Nos. 482, 483, 484.

482 THE KINGS HEAD TAVERN—King Henry the Eighth.
Rev. AT CHANCERY LANE END—In field, T.A.K.

483 WILLIAM HART . CHANCEREY—In field, HIS HALFE PENY.
Rev. LANE END IN FLEET STREET—King Henry the Eighth, full faced, W^m. K.

By an error of the die-sinker, the letter K is punched on the reverse, instead of H, for the name of Hart, the issuer.

The King's Head tavern stood at the west corner of Chancery lane, as tradition states, on or near the site of a mansion that had been the residence of Sir John Oldcastle, summoned to parliament as Baron Cobham, and who died in 1417. The King's Head tavern is asserted, from some old papers, to have been erected in the reign of King Edward the Sixth; the sign was, however, that of the burly reformer his father. Queen Elizabeth, in her fourth year, was entertained by the students of the Temple, and on that or an ensuing occasion of a visit to the city authorities, a species of masque was presented to Her Majesty on her entering the city; and, from some cords across the street, adjusted from the King's Head tavern to the opposite side, several cherubs descended, and proffered for her acceptance a crown of gold and laurels, with several complimentary loyal verses. Those presented by a fourth cherub were the following quatrain:

"Virtue shall witness of her worthiness.
     And fame shall registrare her princelie deeds;
The worlde shall still praie for her happyness,
    From whom our peace and quietude proceeds*.

Here was no vague prophecy; for, as Henry Kirke White most eloquently expresses it,

                                        "Virtue blooms.
Even in the wreck of life, and mounts the skies;"

thus it is, the princely glories of "good Queen Bess's" days continue as fresh in the pages of history as ever, and the brightness of their halo is of unsurpassed effulgence; and yet these lines seem but written as now, and in praise of our own monarch.

Like many of the large houses which were taverns at this period, the tavern or wine-rooms appear to have been on the first-floor. Richard Marriott, for whom, while residing in St. Dunstan's churchyard, Fleet street, in 1653, the rare first edition of Isaac Walton's Compleat Angler was printed by Thomas Maxey, announced by advertisements, in 1665, that his publications were "to bee sold at his shopp in Fleet street, vnder the King's Head tauerne." How long it continued under that denomination is doubtful; the house was demolished in May, 1799, to widen the entrance into Chancery lane.

There are several prints of the old house at the west corner of Chancery lane; but none approach in fidelity that from a drawing by William Capon. That by William Alexander, in Bagster's edition of Walton, 1815, 8vo, is interesting, as showing the old wine-room on the first floor to have been lastly a reading-room; an inscribed board to that effect being placed at the window.

484 AT THE KINGS HEAD—Henry the Eighth, full faced.
Rev. IN FLEET STREETE—In the field, L. W : H. M.

See also No. 288, ante.

* The quatrain here quoted are lines in George Peele's pageant, represented on the inauguration-day of Sir Wolstan Dixie, Oct. 29th, 1585, of which no other copy is known than that in the Corporation Library, Guildhall.

King's Head Tavern, "an elegant mansion" of Edward the Sixth's reign, formerly stood at the S.W. corner of Chancery Lane. Its sign was the head of Henry the Eighth, and the house is said to have occupied the site of the residence of Sir John Oldcastle, Baron Cobham (Shakespeare's "Sir John Falstaff"), who met so ignominious a death in St. Giles' Fields in 1417. In 1585 John Kent was presented for pouring forth bad water upon the people's heads below; and the occupier next door, in 1588, "Henry Marshe for an oven in his house very dangerous joynage to the Kinges Head wch. hath heretofore dangered his neighbours by fyre and doth yet remayne dangerous." Marsh, it seems, kept a "tabling house," so it is easily understood the neighbourly feeling. In the seventeenth century taverns were not restricted to ground floors hence the fact of Richard Marriot, subsequently Isaac Walton's publisher, "keeping shop in 1665 under the "King's Head Taverne." At this house met the Popish plot conspirators of 1678, the council being headed by Lord Howard, and here were the meetings of the "Green Ribbon Club"—a society of men without religion or morals, whose chief aim was to make others as bad as themselves. It was long notorious for its political associations, so much so that in 1629 John Marshall, who kept the house, had his doors closed by the authorities as "a suspected place," and not alone he, but Widow Sutton, who kept the "Mitre." The old house, five stories high, of carved oak, was pulled down for City improvements in 1799, and is engraved in J.T. Smith's "Ancient Typography."

O. THE . KINGS . HEAD . TAVERN = Bust of Henry VIII.
R. AT . CHANCERY . LANE . END = T.A.K.

"'King's Head Tavern,' 'an elegant mansion of Edward the Sixth's reign, formerly stood at the S.W. corner of Chancery Lane. Its sign was the head of Henry the Eighth, and the house is said to have occupied the site of the residence of Sir John Oldcastle, Baron Cobham (Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff), who met so ignominious a death in St. Giles's Fields in 1417. ... In the seventeenth century taverns were not restricted to ground floors: hence the fact of Richard Marriot, subsequently Isaac Walton's publisher, 'keeping shop in 1665' under the 'King's head Taverne.' At this house met the Popish Plot conspirators of 1678, the council being headed by Lord Howard; and here were the meetings of the 'Green Ribbon Club'—a society of men without religion or morals, whose chief aim was to make others as bad as themselves. ... The old house, five stories high, of carved oak, was pulled down for City improvements in 1799, and is engraved in J.T. Smith's 'Ancient Typography.'"—Noble's Memorials of Temple Bar, p. 111.

"1680–1682.—These years were signalized by 'the Burning of the Pope' opposite the 'King's Head Tavern,' by Chancery Lane, on the 17 of November, the anniversary of QUeen Elizabeth's succession. ... The exhibition was political and Protestant, though chiefly the former, and was got up by the 'Green Ribbon Club,' meeting at the 'King's Head,' over against the Inner Temple Gate, next Chancery Lane. ... Roger North stood and viewed the ceremony from the vicinity of the 'Green Dragon Tavern.'"—Noble's Memorials of Temple Bar, p. 51.

For the Green Dragon, vide No. 1071.

"The King's Head Tavern at Chancery-Lane End, where, at this time, the Honestest Vintner in London lives, where the best wine in England is to be Drank, and the Stateliest piece of Beef in Christendom is to be Roasted."—"London Spy," by Ned Ward, 1718, part ii., p. 280.

The follows an account of the cutting up of a huge piece of beef, and of the roasting thereof a few days afterwards.

Vide No. 514.

O. WILLIAM . MART . CHANCEREY = HIS HALFE PENY.
R. LANE . END . IN . FLEET . STREET = Bust of Henry VIII. with orb and sceptre; above, W.K.M.

Vide Nos. 510 and 1087.

This house seems to have been a favourit with Pepys, who records frequent visits thither.

King's Head Tavern, Fleet Street, the west corner of Chancery Lane, was in existence as a tavern in Queen Elizabeth's days, and probably before. The signboard and the tokens showed a full-faced portrait of Henry VIII. The tavern, with its great dining and music room, was on the first and second floor. On the ground floor were shops. Abraham Cowley's father carried on the trade of a grocer here; and the first edition of Izaak Walton's Complete Angler was printed for Thomas Maxey, and "are to be sold at his shopp in Fleet Street under the King's Head Tavern." The King's Head was a "Protestant House." It was frequented by Titus Oates and his associates; and it was the meeting-place of the Green Ribbon Club. The House was demolished in May 1799 in order to widen Chancery Lane, but it had long ceased to be a tavern.

(1102) Obv. AT . THE . KINGS . HEAD . TAVERN = Bust of Henry VIII.
            Rev. IN . Fleet . STREETE = L.W. and H.M.

(See also Thomas Kent's token, Chancery Lane (510).) In 1660–1661, Lewis Wilson and Henry Morris replace Thomas Kent's name in the parish lists of St. Dunstan's West, close to the east side of Chancery Lane, where this famous old tavern stood. In 1666 William Mart takes their place (he had previously issued a token at the Queen's Head in Fleet Street). He issued a halfpenny token at Henry VIII's Head at "Chancerey Lane End in Fleet Street". He appears in the St. Dunstan's lists of vintners till 1683. The tavern has often been wrongly located at the south-west corner of Chancery Lane, but Rocque's map, 1746, shows its correct position, which is confirmed by the order of the successive vintners' names in the parish lists. Lewis Wilson also issued a halfpenny token at the Sun Tavern in Fleet Street, probably after William Mart replaced him at the King's Head, and also, in 1666, a token at the King's Head in the Strand (3017).

9608 Kings Head at the end of Chancery Lane in Fleet Street. A tablet to mark the site bears the dates 1291–1770, but the tavern is believed to date from Edward IV’s reign, 1472. “at the end of Chancellor’s Lane in Fleet street" 1472; "kynges hedde" 1478; "kyngs hed in fletstret"; "Kyngis Hedde" 1531–53; Kings Head in Fleet Street 1567; "Kinges head Temple barr" 1572–73; "Kyngs head in fleete Street" 1585–1612; 1612–29; "Kings head in Fleet street at Chancery Lane ende" Tavern. 1636–c1648, "Kings Head Tavern at Chancery Lane End" 1648–50s; "Kings Head in Fleet Street" c1660–61; 1661–c1770s. Premises were demolished in 1799 to widen the entrance to Chancery Lane.